Gurgaon girl protesting faulty marks dies

GURGAON: Pinky Chauhan, the 21-year-old student who set fire to herself on her college campus in Gurgaon in protest against faulty marksheets, died in Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital at 1am on Sunday, sending her family and friends into deep shock and leaving fellow students seething over a system that drove one of them to such a tragic end.

Admitted to hospital on September 29, Pinky's condition was stable till Saturday afternoon, allowing doctors to shift her to a step-down ICU. But on Saturday night, she started facing breathing problems and was shifted back into ICU and put on ventilator, the hospital's medical superintendent said. She went into coma soon after and died around 1am. "The chances of infection in such cases is quite high. The main cause of death, though, was severe burns," said the superintendent.

The higher education department announced all three government colleges in the city would remain closed for the next two days, possibly fearing large-scale protests. With elections scheduled for October 15, colleges will now reopen only on Thursday. Government Girls' College has also asked its students living in hostels to go home.

Pinky's family and friends allege she had set herself on fire after being humiliated by some lecturers while leading the protest over faulty exam scores and mismanagement in evaluation.

The protests had broken out after the results for the second, fourth and sixth semesters were declared. Pinky, a second-year BSc (non-medical) student, and many others were marked zero or absent in one or more papers. Pinky was given a zero in maths and physics, though her actual score in both papers was 60. But that revelation came only on October 4 when MDU, rattled by the protests, released an "updated" marksheet. Not just Pinky, scores of other students were also updated.

For these students, it was a battle won, thanks to Pinky's protest. But Pinky was waging a grim battle for life, having sustained over 60% burns.

On Sunday, as Kasan, where Pinky lived, went into mourning, her family demanded the arrest of the lecturers who allegedly harassed her and the principal who was transferred. Speaking to TOI, Pinky's brother Arun Chauhan said, "I can't believe she is no more. Our parents are in shock Her last wish was that stern action should be taken against the accused lecturers and the principal."

Gyanendra Singh, the current principal of the college and additional deputy commissioner Pushpendra Chauhan attended her last rites.